Beyond the Beauty
by ilovetvalot
Summary: Written for CCOOC fanfic challenge #2 - Songfic challenge. Reid/Emily. He knew her so well...even her affinity for flowers.


_**Author's Note: I want to thank our loyal readers that are sticking with us. I know my postings are sporadic these days and I apologize for it. I've received a couple of negative anonymous reviews over that very issue. Real life, especially mine, is complicated. Going from a loving two parent household to a single parent with a husband fighting in a dangerous war is difficult. I'm not asking for sympathy, just please be patient. I promise, I'm writing as fast as I can, but I want to bring you guys something of quality instead of garbage I wrote on the fly.**_

_**Shortly, we will be handing out the Valentines Gift Fic assignments (sorry we are running behind) and we will be announcing the winners in our Challenge Mini-Awards. Please hang on with us.**_

_**We also have a couple of new discussion threads up for anyone that is interested on "Chit Chat on Author's Corner" forum.**_

_**As ever, I don't own Criminal Minds.**_

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**Beyond the Beauty**

_**Fanfic Challenge 2010 - Round 2 Assignment: Reid/Emily, Song Title: Welcome Home (Coheed and Cambria)**_

Wilting flowers were not what she wanted to come home to….not ever. No one did.

With the job she did, death and mutilation was an almost daily part of her already hectic life, coloring every corner of her professional world. But seeing it in herown home, the dead decaying embers of what had once been a vibrantly living beautiful thing could just be crushing after some of the cases they worked on.

She loved flowers, however. She always had. Perhaps it had been growing up in various embassies around the world, fresh cut flowers always located in the elegant foyers and various rooms, that had fed her obsession. Perhaps it had been the various gardeners in those mansions who had fed her passion for the beauty from the earth, their talents with the various native flowers in each land a skill that couldn't be learned at any university. When she was home, which, granted, was rare, she always had a vase or two of the fragrant beauties scattered throughout her living room and dining room.

Stupid, really, since she only came home to see them dead or dying.

At least, that was, until Spencer Reid crashed into her world.

Ever since they'd decided to try living together, she'd never once come home to one single wilted stem. It was his welcome home gift to her. And without fail, he always accomplished his goal.

No matter how late their plane landed on the runway or how tired he was, Dr. Spencer Reid managed to find two bouquets of flowers to replace the dried remains in her vases.

The first time he had surprised her like that, she'd thought it had been a fluke. They'd had a spat over the case they'd just completed, and she had mistakenly believed it was his way of making amends. She should have known better. First, Reid had steadfastly believed himself to be right, and had emphatically assured her of that fact once again. And second, he'd never be so trite as to apologize with flowers.

That was something normal, predictable men did. And thankfully, her lover was anything but those things. It's what kept their relationship unique...interesting...and infinitely satisfying. Reid challenged her as no other man ever had. Intellectually, emotionally...and hell, even physically. At the time, she'd just shaken her head at the gesture, remaining silent. But, still...she had wondered.

By the fourth time he had walked into what was now "their" apartment carrying two plastic sleeved bouquets of tulips, she'd finally broken her self-imposed silence and asked him about it.

"What makes you pick up flowers every time we come home, Spence?" she'd asked late one night as he'd stood at the kitchen sink arranging the red and white blooms in the heavy crystal vase that graced her dining room table. She'd leaned against the counter beside him, a glass of red wine held between her fingertips as she watched him, his long, graceful fingers artfully placing the delicate buds in the glass one by one. His talents rivaled those of the master gardeners she had once admired all those long years ago, and she was struck by how her life was once again obviously completing a circle.

"Honestly?" he'd murmured, glancing at her with a shy smile as his fingers had stalled momentarily against the verdant stems.

"When have I ever wanted anything other than complete honesty?" she had teased him, leaning forward to press a kiss against his jaw, inhaling his amazing scent.

"Absolutely never," Reid murmured as he smiled at her, turning his head to meet her lips in a gently passionate kiss. Drawing back, he heard her soft, "Well, are you going to tell me or not?"

He'd smiled...the one that melted her heart no matter where she was or what she was doing and looked at her. "I couldn't stand seeing the tears in your eyes. When we'd come home and you'd see the dead flowers, you always looked so sad. I knew the connection you were making. I'd be a fool not to...and I knew it was something I could do something about."

Touched beyond words, Emily had gently stroked his face, her fingers memorizing every dimple and shallow line. "You did that for me?"

"That look you'd get when you opened the front door and saw the flowers," he'd answered without looking at her, "It always reminded me of the look my mom would get after she'd finished a novel she loved. I couldn't give her something to take that pain away, but yours..." He had shrugged then, his words halting for a moment before he drew in a deep breath. "This I can fix. Always," he'd declared as he nodded, dropping the last tulip into the vase with a flourish. "I get to welcome you home in a way that belongs to me alone."

"Spencer," she had whispered, gently touching his chin and turning his face toward hers, desperate to see his beautiful, serene gaze. "Sometimes, you amaze me even more than you usually do. Do you know how much I love you?"

He'd smiled down at her, eyes wide and full of hope. "Hopefully, as much as I love you."

"I can promise you that it's just as much," she promised with a widening smile. "Leave the flowers for now, Dr. Reid," she'd ordered, wrapping her fingers around his tie and ulling him toward her. "I want you to take me upstairs and show me some of the other ways you know how to love me."

Hours later as her sated body snuggled beside her sleeping doctor, Emily smiled in happiness and fulfillment. The beauty was back in her life...and not just in the form of flowers. And turning her head to pillow her cheek on Spencer's bare chest, his heart beat slowly pounding beneath her skin, she felt at peace for the first time in years.

_**Finis**_


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